NetGalley

Reviews Published

Monday, March 27, 2017

I Liked My Life by Abby Fabiaschi


I Liked My Life by Abby Fabiaschi is a novel that you want to describe as “beautiful” and “poignant”, but those words have been used to often, and to reflect this book’s originality and depth, you ultimately need much fresher and more significant adjectives.

 

It’s a book about how to live your life, how to cope with loss, and how to not hurt those you love. It’s a book about marriage, teenagers, and death. It’s about what comes after and how what came before shapes our destiny.

 

It’s a book that deserves our attention.


Ready Player One


If you haven't read "Ready player one" by Ernest Cline yet, try it. You will love it if:

  • You remember the 80s fondly.
  • You liked video games.
  • You watched 80s movies.
  • You played text adventure games.
  • You’re into SF and VR.

Premise: The 80s have been recreated in virtual reality, and now a treasure hunt is on: for a fortune in money, but also for the ownership of the virtual reality and for the chance to save it from a greedy corporation hell-bent on changing the setting forever. The plot is one gigantic video game / treasure hunt / puzzle.

 

Young Adult level, a bit too much swearing for young young-adults. A romance subplot. Because the plot is a virtual reality game, any deux ex machina devices should be forgiven. J


Monday, March 06, 2017

When I was Invisible

"When I was invisible" by Dorothy Koomson is a beautiful book about an ugly topic. Don't let the backstory tragedy stop you, though. This novel will make you think about many issues and on many levels.

In 1988, two eight-year-old girls with almost identical names and the same love of ballet meet for the first time. They seem destined to be best friends forever and to become professional dancers. Years later, however, they have both been dealt so many cruel blows that they walk away from each other into very different futures – one enters a convent, the other becomes a minor celebrity. Will these new, ‘invisible’ lives be the ones they were meant to live, or will they only find that kind of salvation when they are reunited twenty years later?